Attachment for railway-switches.



W. T. LAWLOR.

ATTACHMENT FOR RAILWAY SWITCHES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. I4. 1918.

1 281 79? Patented Oct. 15, 1918.

W/TNESSES' mm /UM/W A 43 M va ATTORNEYS PATENT @FFTQTE.

WILLIAM E. nAwLon, or JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

ATTACHMENT For. nAILwAY-swIrcHEs.

meanest.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented @ct. 1 .5, 191%.

Application filed March 14, 1918. Serial No. 222,320.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that 1, WILLIAM T. LAwLoR, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to an attachment for thawing out railway switches. An object of the invention is to provide an attachment which will eliminate most of the manual labor, which will permit a more uniform supply of heat and with less injury to the bed of the track.

With the above and other objects in v1ew, the nature of which will more fully appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists in the novel construction, combination and arran ement of parts as herein fully described, illustrated and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of the application, similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a railway switch provided With an attachment embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross section on line 22, Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an elevation of a loose wrench for controlling the fuel-supply valve.

At present when snow packs the switches and interferes with the operation of the points, men are sent out with pails of crude oil which they ignite under the points to thaw them out and permit the operation of same. In very cold Weather one man can hardly attend properly to a switch; in addition, the amount of fuel wasted is very large, due to the fact that the man has to pour the oil at intervals, thereby having at one time a large flame and at other times a very small flame. The object of my invention is to enable one man to attend to a large number of switches, and also to economize fuel. I, therefore, provide between the ties 4: of the track at the switch, pans 5. Preferably the pans are of the width of the rail and the point associated therewith, and the pans are only provided through points.

Each of the pans can be fed independently from a valve-controlled conduit 6 which forms a branch from aside conduit 7, the

two conduits being disposed on the outside the length of the of the track and preferably anchored to the ties at su1table intervals by clamps 8. Each of the side conduits 7 is provided with a valve 9 in proximity to the main conduit 10 WlllCh leads to the supply tank 11 provided at a sultable height to gravitationally feed the crude oil contained in the tank through all the conduits and, therefore, to the pans 5. Preferably the main conduit 10 has a valve 12 in proximity to. the tank 11.

The tank 11 may supply a number of sw1tches that may be connected through the same main conduit 10, or different ones, as

the case may be. All of the valves are operable by a loose key, or keys, 13 which is 1n possession of the track walker so that only a person authorized by him may operate said valves to supply crude oil to any of the pans at any of the switches.

Each of the pans is preferably a segment of a hollow cylinder having its end surfaces in a vertical plane and provided with a lateral handle 14 on the side through which the end of the conduit 6 is adapted to project. Said handle 14 is preferably yielding so that it may be secured to the conduit 6 by means of a clamp 15 in a manner such that the end of the conduit 6 overhangs the straight edges of the pan and allows the oil to flow directly into the pan. (See Fig. 2). In the arrangement shown, each of the pans can be supplied independently; in consequence, all

the pans may be supplied with fuel or any one of the pans in the row.

By securing the pans to the feeders the pans are prevented from movement due to the vibration caused by the passing trains, and thereby waste of oil is prevented, for if the pan moves away from the feeder the oil will be discharged on the ground in lieu of into the pan. The securing of the pans to the feeders also permits the maintaining of the pans, if so desired, suspended from the feeders, that is, above the ground. This is of advantage, particularly when the ground is covered with snow; thereby the heat of the pan is not absorbed by the cool ground with which the pan would contact if it were not suspended from the feeder. The pan is shown so suspended in Fig. 2.

In certain cases, when the weather is not very severe, it is possible to skip some of the pans, thereby saving on fuel. In other words, this arrangement permits a perfect control by one man, not only of a switch but of a number of switches, and insures a perfeet thaw and therefore, a free operation of the switch.

I claim:

1. In combination with a railway switch, a series of pans disposed between the ties along each point of the switch, valve-controlled fuel feeders for each of the pans, each of said pans having a handle adapted to engage the end of the feeder, and a clamp for securing the handle to the feeder.

2. In combination with a railway switch, a series of pans disposed between the ties along each point of the switch each of said pans being a'segment of a hollow cylinder, each of said pans having a handle at one of its straight edges, valve-controlled fuel feeders for each of said pans, the, handle of each of the pans being adapted to engage the end of a feeder, and a clamp on the handle for securing the handle toa feeder.

3. In combination with a railway switch, a series of pans disposed between the ties along each point of the switch, and fuel feeders for each of the pans, each of said pans having means for securing it to a feeder.

4. In comblnatlon with a railway switch,

a series of pans disposed between the ties along each point of the switch, fuel feeders for each of the pans, and a handle connectmg each pan to a corresponding feeder.

WILLIAM T. LAWLOR. 

